Two young boys stumble on a dead prostitute. She's on Sean Denton's patch. As Doncaster's youngest community support officer, he's already way out of his depth, but soon he's uncovering more than he's supposed to know. Meanwhile Karen Friedman, professional mother of two, learns her brother has disappeared. She desperately needs to know he's safe, but once she starts looking, she discovers unexpected things about her own needs and desires. In this gripping story of migrants, love and the sex trade, Karen and Sean's enquiries begin to throw up the same names. While Sean comes up against a corrupt senior officer, Karen finds she's falling in love. Played out against a gritty landscape on the edge of a Northern town, both of them risk losing all they hold precious.

Sean is upset by the reaction of his police colleagues to the knowledge of the sudden death he has discovered in particular the senior detective who comes to the location and his lack of respect for the dead body.

The author has a gift of being able to focus on aspects that one would not normally consider important which by so doing gives the reader a terrific pictorial glimpse of northern life in a gritty and intense way. The twists and turns that she puts in the story of how Sean and Karen take their parts of the story kept me hooked until the final paragraph.

Strongly recommended.

Terry Halligan, England
February 2014